


Transition of boy to man

by HannahRose063



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Military, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:06:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3405041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannahRose063/pseuds/HannahRose063
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This ficlet is written for Andy and her wonderful characters 'Erik' and 'Fritz'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Faggot!” A blow to the gut.

“Queer!” A boot making contact between his shoulderblades.

“Homo!” Something wet hitting his cheek, probably spit, and the sound of retreating footsteps as the trio of boys left leaving Erik to slowly push himself up from his side to his feet with a soft spit of blood, looking behind him at the broken little bodies of the fallen nest and bigger twisted body of the nesting pigeon.

He had heard the whooping shouts of ‘Get it! Get it!’ and when coming to investigate had found the youths kicking and trying to stomp on the bird chirping and calling trying to defend the nest even with its broken wing. Still, even then Erik couldn’t save them. His fists were weak, his kicks lacklustre, and as underbuilt as he was trying to tackle the chubby leader only left him bouncing off to the ground where the boots and fists found a new target rather than the lifeless bodies behind him.

Tongue sliding over his fist split lip as he limped his way out of the sidestreet, using the collar of his shirt to wipe his face and chin free of smeared egg and chick blood in digust, Erik barely noticed the car pulled alongside him till the honking horn got his attention and looked over at... Oma.

Greying hair, crowfeet and wrinkles, but even between all of that she was still beautiful even in old age. Opa too. Seventy five and still built like a Ziegelhaus. Childhood sweethearts. Marrying right out of high school and together ever since. Two more years and their marriage was a golden anniversary. How two kind hearted and wonderful people could produce something like his father, he would never know.

Oma and Opa were the only family aside his mother who seemed to actually care about who he was, not what he should be. He wasn’t strong like the other boys in town, he had brain over brawn. Quick thinking, a sharp wit, and fast on his feet. He had learned to run fast, not caring for the ‘Coward!’ calls that followed him. He stood no chance against most of the town’s sons on their own, even more so in their little pack like groups of hierarchy. Hell, even the butchers daughter had slugged him one once and sent him seeing stars.

“ _Enkel,_ what happened to you? Let’s get you home and washed up before your father gets home...” the soft voice asked as he sat down in the seat with a little sigh, still rubbing at his face now with the hem of his shirt. It was already ruined by blood, what would some egg yolk and bird ruin anymore?

“Mikkeal, Elmar and Sepp were hurting them. The nest was blown down in last night’s wind and the mother was trying to stop them from kicking and stepping on the nest. I don’t know if they had broken her wing or when the wind blew her down.” He admitted, looking up as they turned into the old cottage that he remembered so fondly of the last Christmas with his mother; the year he got the worst present.

Everyone was there; his aunts, his cousins, his Mother’s mother, Oma and Opa. And, lastly, just before dinner, his father strolling through the door, still in uniform fresh off the military truck and bag over his shoulder. Even while smiling, his eyes were that harsh cold steel when they landed on Erik.

Why? Because with all the amount of cousins he had, Heinz had gotten the runt of the DNA litter. Weedy, still harbouring baby fat on his cheeks, his mother’s features. He looked little to nothing like his farther. Even Freya and Etta, his mother’s sisters, were more built than him. Oh, and of course, the gay child. Can’t forget that one. Heinz laughed it off when mentioned as ‘He’s just being a joker and drunk’ but that glacier stare each time told him otherwise. Displeased and disgusted.

New Years Eve the previous year, he and Hans had been busted in the back room of the local VCR hire. Erik beaten, Hans fired, and his parents shipped him off to boarding school for counselling while they moved towns in general. So, now, Erik was the more or less the laughing stock and punching bag of his age group. He wished his father had driven him to school that day, not her.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Ow!” Came an indignant cry.

“Well if you stopped squirming I wouldn’t have poked you in the eye trying to clean it up” His grandfather lightly scolded as he set to dabbing antiseptic on the knuckle made graze along his cheekbone with a tip of his tongue stuck out for concentration.

Scrubbed clean and changed out of the scuffle soiled clothes, Erik was more than content to sit on the battered and stuffing bare lounge with Oma and Opa, strudel in hand, finding he could let down walls he was forced to bring up around his father.

To strong, be silent, ‘ _be a man_ ’. If military was what brought such a cold interior and exterior out in his father, he would never sign up. Within four months of the funeral, he was dumped on his Grandparent’s porch as everything in the little town reminded Heinz of Marie. Snow white mornings and slippery roads made driving dangerous. Black ice on the road and the car was rolling, wrapped around the power pole. Autopsy said she had been crushed on impact and it was instant. No pain. Heinz held him responsible, that much was quite clear.

Which only made the point clearer as the sound of tires on gravel sounded followed by an impatient honk from a car outside. His father knew by now if he wasn’t home, he was here.

‘ _A man shouldn’t be hanging around his grandparents like a little girl wanting her hair braided or a new dress from nanna. Get out there, be a man, and find yourself a girl, Erik_ ’ Same thing he heard every time he was picked up. “Thank you for the strudel, Oma.” He murmured, pulled into a hug and Opa’s hand rubbing his back as he was walked to the front door with a murmured ‘You are always welcome here’ before he was padding down the steps to the waiting blue ’57 Chevy. Bag tossed in the back before a sharp back from his father of ‘Get your ass in the front seat, i’m not your Chauffeur’ had him skittering into the front seat, hands in his lap trying to be as small as he could as the car turned back onto the main road.

 

“Erik. I swear to god. You cannot keep running back to your grandparent’s when the sky gets cloudy. You are not a child. You are sixteen. Get your head out of the clouds, quit sucking your thumb, get a haircut and find yourself a girl, or at least a job. If you had either of those maybe everyone would stop picking on you” Heinz growled, waiting for the cars coming around the round about to slow so he could pull out onto the road again.

“People won’t hire me, believe me I have tried, Dad.” He sighed, combing both hands up his face and into his fringe to tug in frustration at the constant Déjà Vu of this conversation. EVERY TIME. “The girls wont date me as they think I am joking, not to mention even if they didn’t they don’t want someone who cannot buy them gifts without a job. Two birds killed and I am the stone. Jobs nor ladies want me.” He muttered, staring out the window at the houses going by. Not like HE wanted any ladies either. Why couldn’t he be as excepting of Erik was like Oma and Opa. Hell. Even his cousins were fine with it. Was it a generation thing? Grandparents fine with it. Father and Aunts hates it. Cousins are fine with it. Honestly. There were weirder things like Old Hermit Henry who slept with livestock but making out with ONE GUY and the world was ending.

“Just go hang out with some of your lads from highschool and find a girl.” Heinz sighed

“We have established no girls want to be around me nor will any of the guys from school aside to beat me up. Again” he said flatly.

“Look, if you just made an effort to find a girl you would-“ his father started before Erik twisted around to look at his father and cut him off.

“I don’t WANT to find one! I don’t want a girl! I was happy with Hans before you intervened, Mother was t-“ It was Erik’s turn to be cut off midsentence by the car suddenly braking and a hand clapping him upside the jaw in a slap, the back of his head hitting the window with a rattle and looking up at the fuming, red face in the seat beside him. Free hand clenched on the steering wheel.

Eyes watering and a hand to the heated throbbing cheek that would be lucky not to bruise by morning as lifted his gaze to Heinz. Sixteen years and never once had he been hit, let alone a hand raised to him.

“Well, she isn’t here anymore, Erik. She is gone. And you are going to have to step out of this fucking fairy world of action figures and comics and fucking pastries. You wouldn’t step up and be a man so I have done it for you. The coach will be here on Monday” He said flatly, a hint of a snarl to be heard as the car went back into motion, pulling into the driveway.

“The ... the coach?” he asked, almost dreading the answer.

“Correct. My father sent me to military school when I was your age. Perhaps they can beat that pathetic nonsense of kissing men out of you more than I want to do it yourself. Spend tomorrow with your grandparents tomorrow if you wish. But you WILL be getting on the coach come Monday, even if i have to throw you on it myself with my boot up your arse” Heinz hissed. Barely even looking at Erik as he stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him, before storming up into the house.


	2. Enter, Fritz...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its a new dawn, and a new day . . . And a new life

The drive from Essen to **_Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr_ ** dragged on longer than Erik expected it to.  Sure, it was nearly four hours from his home town to his new home, he still couldn’t help but feel … Hurt. Sure, he had fucked up a few times in the last year and he wasn’t the manliest of offspring to the family, but was the cure for this to send him away? What if he was just a late bloomer and he would start bulking out any day now?  
He found himself looking at the time every 5 minutes or so on the old watch Opa had given him before stepping onto the coach, counting down the minutes until he could get out of this stuffy van full of bragging and whooping youths who _LOOKED_ like they belonged on the bus. All muscle, and seemingly no brains.

**_Wonderbar._ **

He rested his head on the glass window to the right of him, and closed his eyes. He thought about his goodbye with Oma and Opa only one hour ago, his father patting him on the back last night with a ‘ _See you in the summer_ ’. Figures that that bastard would be so eager to get rid of him he didn’t even see him off on the day of his leaving. He remembered hugging Oma tighter than he ever had before and she hugged him back just as tightly, both trying not to cry and Oma failing as the coach pulled onto the drive way. Although in the past few years they may have fought a little and said some awful things to each other prior to Marie’s death, but Erik LOVED his grandparents more than he ever could Heinz. They were each other’s best friends, confidants, and protectors when it came to Erik and the lack of input from Heinz. He had more or less been dumped on their door when Heinz wanted nothing more to do with his son. Erik already felt a bit lost without her, and he had only been gone for exactly…. 68 minutes.

He opened his eyes reluctantly and lifted his head from the glass. After checking his watch for the time  **again,**  (only 71 minutes had passed now), he looked up in front of him towards the driver before twisting to look at the other teens on the bus. Anywhere from watery eyed, terrified fourteen year olds to calm relaxed sixteen to eighteen year olds who had done this before.

Knowing he still had another god knows how minutes until he arrived at his new home (and school, gross), he placed his head back on the glass with his coat pulled tight around him and closed his eyes once again, hoping that the next 8 months would go by quickly.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Before he knew it, Erik was being shaken awake. He must’ve fallen asleep at some point during the car ride. He rubbed at his eyes, and sat up straight, looking at the coach driver standing in front of him.

“We’re here.” She said flatly, twisting on her heel and hopping out of the car to help unload Erik’s stuff.

Erik undid his seatbelt, and subconsciously fixed his hair before getting out of the coach himself. He made his way over to the luggage area underneath, and started unloading his surprisingly small amount of belongings. Out of the corner of his eye, Erik could see a man in a suit walking towards them. He was tall, probably around 6’1, had greying hair, was surprisingly fit and somewhat attractive. By his appearance, Erik concluded that he was the Dean of Students Office.

“Mr. Landa, I presume.” The man outstretched his hand to shake Erik’s, who didn’t reach out to take it. Landas didn’t shake hands.  
  
“At this establishment, it is considered extremely rude not to shake a man’s hand, especially the Dean’s.” the man glowered at him, dislike written across his face.

Erik shook it reluctantly, turning back to the van to remove his last piece of luggage.  
“Let me help you with those.” the Dean said, picking up a few boxes labeled “stupid shit” and “more stupid shit”. The Dean eyed them, and simply shook his head.

“Let’s get to your dorm so you can unpack, shall we. Along the way, I’ll give you a quick tour of the campus and all our facilities.”

Erik simply nodded, not really giving a rats ass about all the classrooms and grounds he was about to get a tour of. All he needed to know was where the food was kept, where the library was and where he was going to be sleeping, and that’d be enough for him to survive for the next 12 months.

“Oh, I completely forgot to introduce myself. I’m Mr. Hofman, the Dean of this fine establishment.” The way the guy talked made him sound like a total douchebag.

“Erik.” He mumbled, a box in his arms and bag over his back.

“Ah yes, I know. I’ve heard a lot about you. My friend, your Father, has shared some very colorful stories about you. I told him we normally take only _outstanding_ ROTC students and future military prospects. But, of course, I have made an exception for you, simply because he sounded extremely _desperate_ and I had to help out a dear old friend.” The Dean practically sneered, lip curled.

And THERE was all the grounds Erik needed to know this man was indeed a **douchebag**.

Suddenly, the Dean leaned in much closer to Erik and the expression on his face hardened. “But let me tell you this, kid. You do anything to fuck up this schools’, and my own, reputation, and you will be very, very sorry. “

Erik turned to stare at the old man. Was he fucking him?

“. . . I-is that a threat?” He said slowly, unsure if this was some intimidation joke this man pulled on every new kid to step foot through the gates.

“It sure is, kid.”

Yup, the guy was definitely a douchebag. Erik was going to have one hell of a year.

 

 

* * *

 

 

After what seemed like an eternity of walking and explanations of the building wings, they finally arrived at his dorm room. Erik opened the door to find that one half was already decorated with furniture, little knick knacks, and posters of ROTC related crap. However, the room was spotless, not one thing out of its place. Erik, while a tad disorganized and occasionally messy if distracted, already despised his roommate, and knew that the guy was probably going to hate him too.

“You’re rooming on the left, considering Fritz’s already claimed the right. I wonder where he is right now, I wanted to introduce him to you. Anyways, your roommate’s name is Fritz. He’s one of our most outstanding students, and the best in his class. He’s an ROTC prodigy, and we are so lucky to have him. I have high hopes that he will be a positive influence and role model for you.”

It’s like the guy was gay for this Fritz kid or something. He went on rambling about how great and unbelievable he was for a long time, making it seem as though the kid was some kind of angel. When he was done talking about the guy, his face turned sour again.

“Unpack your shit; I’ll unfortunately be back later to give you your daily itinerary. Remember what I said; don’t fuck anything up Landa, or else.”

 

 

With that, the Dean turned his back on Erik and left him to unpack. Instead, however, he let eyes roam over the others area with a little step closer with hands behind his back trying to get an understanding of just what he was up against here. He started at the kid’s desk, finding nothing on the top except some military magazines and school textbooks. Damn, this kid was dedicated. On the desk against the wall was a picture of two girls, one brunette and around Erik’s age, maybe a bit older, and the other was a ginger who looked 12 or so. He wondered if the brunette was the guy’s girlfriend. His Sister, perhaps. Fingers curling out to one of the textbooks to lift up, he nearly dropped it at the sound behind him.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” a voice drifted in from the doorway. Shit, Erik didn’t know anyone was standing there. He quickly placed the book back on the pile and turned around to face a tall brunette standing in the doorway. His heart rate sped up a little faster at the sight of the guy because, fuck, he was hot. He assumed this was his new roommate.

Erik managed a meek shrug, “Just l-looking at a text book.”

The guy laughed slightly, in a completely baffled way rather than a happy way. He walked into the room and took a seat on his bed.

“I wasn’t told my new roommate was going to be such an snoop.”

A snoop? Oh. Really? “Yeah, and I wasn’t told MY roommate was going to be such an annoying kiss ass.”

 The two boys just glared at each other, obvious dislike looming in the room. The brunette broke eye contact first, rolling his eyes at Erik and pulling a book out of his bedside table. Erik continued to unpack his stuff, no words being exchanged between the two boys for the remainder of the night. God, only a few hours in and Erik already wanted to murder his roommate. 

 


	3. "I fucking hate Fritz Diehl"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of School, and Erik can tell this place was going to kill him.

Erik awoke the next morning to a strong arm grasping his shoulder, shaking him ever so slightly. His eyes fluttered open with a low groan, situating on the tall, brunette standing above him. The guy sighed before letting his features transform into a soft smile.

“Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot yesterday.” His roommate started. Erik sat up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes and noticed it was still dark outside. He looked around his messy room, boxes littering the floor since he still hadn’t unpacked everything. He glanced at the clock on their shared wall and noticed it was barely past 5 am. The guy literally must have been insane seeing as he was dressed and ready to start the day before the sun even fucking rose.

“My name’s Fritz. Fritz Diehl. Anyways, I know I may have seemed like a bit of a prick yesterday, but I’m really not like that. I just want to help you, ya know? This place is so great and the ROTC training is crazy helpful……” The guy, who Erik now knew was named Fritz, rambled about how fantastic this shitty school was for what seemed like hours. Shit, he was like a miniature version of the Dean. No wonder the guy was obsessed with him. Erik wanted nothing more than to go back home. There was no fucking strudel here and he swore he was having withdrawal symptoms!

Erik snapped out of his thoughts and noticed Fritz staring intently at him, as if he just asked a question and was waiting for an answer.  
“What?” Erik asked.

“I said, what’s your class schedule? Maybe we’ll have some classes together. I heard you’re a junior, and even though I’m only a sophomore, we have … like … a blended learning system so sometimes sophomores and juniors take certain courses together and stuff.”

All Erik could do was laugh, a sleepy ‘I don’t care’ laugh. The thought of having to spend  _more_ time than he already was with this rich little dickhead made him feel sick. Why couldn’t he just leave him alone? He would rather this guy was a dickhead, that way there would be pleasant silence of hate between them.

“… Fuck you.” He said as he turned over to go back to sleep. It was not Fritz at the root of all his problems. Sent away from the two people who loved him, his father not even bothering to see him off, and to top it off he was stuck with a brown nosing ‘role model’ of a room mate. He wanted to go home. Fritz was just who it landed on. “And don’t wake me up before sunrise ever again.”

 

* * *

 

 

If the first day of class was any indication of how the rest of the year was going to go, Erik would  **not** make it out alive. He was on break for lunch now, and was already over this whole place. Before lunch, Erik had attended English, History, Biology and a medical class as some people would be graduates from here to the army and every fact helped. Next, he was heading to Algebra, his least favourite subject, and then off to 6 hours of Military training.

Fun.

The worst part, however, wasn’t even the actual learning.

It was the fact that Fritz fucking Diehl was already in 3 out of 4 of his classes, and with his luck, would probably be in his Algebra class too.

Erik looked up from the table he was sitting at by himself, to across the cafeteria where Fritz was sitting with a surprisingly large group of friends. They were animatedly laughing at him, some holding their chests and others wiping away tears as if he had just said the funniest thing in the whole world.

He kept staring at him, intrigued as to how this know-it-all kid was so popular. Every few seconds or so, someone would pass by him and say hi or compliment him on something. He graciously smiled at each and every person, responding with ‘ _hello_ ’s and ‘ _thank you_ ’s. It was like he was a god at this school. How people could actually like him, let alone tolerate him, was not something Erik could understand. Fritz was good looking, there was no doubt about it, but he was such a kiss ass… why did people think he was cool?

Suddenly, the bell rang, signalling next period was about to begin, and everyone in the cafeteria quickly gathered their stuff and shuffled to their designated classrooms.  All except Erik. He took his precious time finishing his sandwich, emptying his garbage and taking a nice, long detour to to the bathrooms to get ‘lost’. By the time he was all ready to start class, he was 10 minutes late. And he did not give a single fuck. He had been thinking about the Dean’s comment yesterday about ruining the reputation of the school and ‘colourful’ stories from his dad, so surely if he skipped a class or two it wouldn’t be all THAT bad, right?  
  
WRONG. . .

He looked down at his class schedule, found his room number, and located it at the end of the main hall. Through the window of the classroom, he could see everyone taking notes and listening to the teacher ramble. He pushed the door open with a knock, standing in the doorway waiting for either the lecture of his life or told to sit.

The looks he received were completely priceless. Half of the guys in the class had their mouths wide open, completely shocked and stunned by his entrance, while others looked down at the floor in total fear. The teacher simply shook his head.

“You must be Landa.” He said, completely unamused. “I’ve heard about you. Take a seat at the back, and don’t be late again.” He was clearly annoyed, but that didn’t surprise Erik at all. Teachers hated him, and he hated teachers.

As Erik made his way to the back of the classroom, he took note of the only empty seat, which happened to be right beside the spawn of the devil himself.

Erik sighed, completely and utterly annoyed that this Fritz kid was literally  **everywhere.** Couldn’t he just fuck off already? He dared not to look at him, and instead glared at the kid cowering in the other seat beside him. The kid stared harshly at his paper in front of him, silently willing himself not to look Erik in the eye. Curiosity got the best of him, however, and he quickly looked over at Erik, sizing him up, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

He did notice. Nothing got past Erik. He glared at the kid, not in the mood. “Look at me again, and I’ll slit your throat.” He scowled at him.

The boy’s eyes widened and he turned away as fast as he could. Erik simply smiled to himself. Seems he was one student higher on the pecking order. Others around him began to whisper, whispers that he knew were about him. The teacher was oblivious to all of this, however, as he was completely wrapped up in the formulas he was writing on the board.

Erik tried to make out what was being said about him, but could only gather bits and pieces of conversations. Suddenly, Diehl’s voice caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see him talking to a blonde boy sitting in front of him, the kid barely turned around in his seat, appearing as if he was actually paying attention to the lesson. Erik focused all of his attention on them, trying his hardest to hear what was being said.

“Jason looks like he’s gonna cry.” the blonde haired kid said to Fritz. Erik couldn’t tell if the guy felt bad or was about to laugh.

“I know, poor kid.” Fritz replied to him, ever so quietly that Erik could barely hear. “Erik’s definitely got anger issues.”

Erik almost dropped his pencil. That stupid bastard. Who did he think he was, going around telling people that Erik had “anger issues”? The kid knew him for all of 5 minutes and suddenly he was acting like he was Erik’s fucking psychiatrist or something. Sure, Erik was angry since arriving to this godforsaken school of snotty nosed brats, but he didn’t have fucking issues.

Erik stood up and stomped out of the room. He wasn’t going to sit around while Diehl talked shit about him,  _right in front of his face._

He needed a fucking smoke.

 

He walked through the hallway, locating the closest exit. He pushed open the doors, breathing heavily out of pure anger, and lit a cigarette that he fished out of his pocket. He noticed a group of about 4 or 5 guys standing around near a brick wall to Erik’s left, all smoking or drinking beer. They noticed him fuming, and stared at him for a while. Until one guy, a shorter guy with a massive tattoo on his left shoulder asked “you okay man?”

Erik puffed out a huge cloud of smoke, instantly feeling better once the nicotine had hit his lungs.

Cigarettes were lifesavers.

He looked at the guy, simply responding. “I fucking hate Fritz Diehl.”

All 5 of the guys just looked at each other, silently deliberating how to respond to him. Suddenly, two of the guys clinked their beers together, and said “Cheers to that, my friend.” The rest of them raised their cigarettes in the air, signalling their cheers as well.

Looks like Erik didn’t hate everyone at this school after all. 


	4. The First Day.

Erik ended up skipping the rest of his algebra class, and instead, spent his time chain smoking with his newfound friends.

After the basic introductions and some small talk, Erik found out that 3 of the 5 were also “delinquents” and had all been sent to the school as a form of punishment or instead of juvie. They said they were the only ones on campus who were forced to attend the school; everyone else was there by choice.

Erik immediately labelled this group as the cool people of the school. The other two guys, who Erik found out were brothers, had pretty clean track records, but knew where to find good weed and booze, so were easily accepted into the group. The guys took to Erik very quickly, and told him that they met up every day in this exact spot during meals and free time. They all exchanged campus room numbers (Erik especially wanted the brothers’ numbers so they could hook him up at any given time) and Erik told them he had to go to training, since he had already skipped one class on his first day.

As he walked away from his new group of “friends”, he felt somewhat accomplished. He knew he wouldn’t be the only one on this entire campus who would rather drink and party all night than read a fucking textbook and fall asleep at 10pm. He was extremely glad he found them sooner rather than later.

 

* * *

 

 

For the training portion of the day, students were required to change into basic ROTC uniforms (they were allowed to wear normal clothing during the education part of the day). Erik filed into the locker room and located his locker, a large piece of masking tape with a messily written “Landa” stuck to the door. He opened it, and pulled out the new uniform waiting for him. Considering he was a bit late, the locker room was completely empty other than him. He was pleased about this, as he now could change in private without having to worry about other dudes looking at him . . . not that he would mind though. He quickly changed, and left the locker room, following the signs posted through the gym pointing at the exit to the base camp.

As Erik stepped outside, he was somewhat shocked to find that the base was enormous and looked exactly like an actual army base. He had never seen a real army base up close, but it looked identical to the ones he saw on in magazines and in the old movies. It was fully equipped with obstacle courses, a target range and multiple tracks to run on. He noticed a group of boys running drills off in the left corner of the base, and hurriedly made his way to join them. He saw his training instructor off to the side, whistle around his neck, telling the cadets what do. Beside him, a shorter boy was hunched over, facing away from Erik, trying to catch his breath. He didn’t think it was fair that while all the other guys had to run and actually do shit, this guy got a break. There were so many kiss asses at this school and Erik was beginning to get sick of it.

The cadets stopped, panting and breathing heavily, and were told to take a 3 minute water break. Erik figured this would be a good time to talk to his TI, and figure out what the hell he was required to do today. Suddenly, the lazy kid turned, and Erik found himself face to face with Fritz Diehl. Of fucking course.

He wiped some sweat from one of his brows, and grabbed his shirt, shaking it to air himself out a little. He noticed Erik approaching, and quickly pulled him aside before he could even introduce himself to the TI.

“Look, did I do something to piss you off in Algebra? If I did, I’m sorry man.” He seemed sincere but Erik wasn’t one for all that apology crap.

“I don’t have fucking anger issues, okay?” Erik snapped, he didn’t want to deal with this right now.

Fritz raised his hands up in defense, signalling to Erik that he meant no harm and that he needed to calm down a bit. Erik rolled his eyes, and headed towards the TI to tell him he was here and ready to get on with this military bullshit.

 

* * *

 

 

They had been at it for 5 hours now. At the 4 hour mark, every student had an hour dinner break, in which they gathered in the cafeteria to eat and then separated off with their friends to do whatever they pleased. At 7pm, they went back to their military training, and were required to be there until 9pm. It was around 8:00 now, and the boys were all being tested on the obstacle course to see how physically fit they were. From there, they would be broken into groups based on their skill level, and would be in these training groups for the rest of the year.

It was Erik’s turn now to take his test. He had always been an extremely fast runner, and was incredibly skilled at dodging obstacles (if you considered being chased by the youths and whatever the kids back in Essen threw at him from cars as obstacles) so he figured this course would be an absolute piece of cake. As soon as the whistle blew, he was off. He whizzed through it with complete ease. Once he was finished, he bent over a little to catch his breath. He actually kind of enjoyed that; climbing ropes and crawling through mud, lifting or throwing heavy objects not so much but shooting things were right up his alley. Opa had taught him well with an old Lugar.

The TI ran over to him, stopwatch in hand, and gave him a pat on the back. “Good job kid, you have the time to beat! Fastest time of your class, actually. Who knew?” He showed Erik his extremely fast time, and with that, jogged back over to his station to test the next cadet. Erik just stood there, not surprised that he was the fastest, but proud. Though he was shit at school and homework, he was apparently good at ROTC and that was enough. Erik was not often the best, so this felt pretty good.

Erik took a seat on the grass beside the course, watching other cadets do their tests. None of them appeared to even come close to Erik’s time, which made him feel even more superior to them. He reached for his water bottle, and sprayed a little in his face and on his shirt, between the sprint and the muggy night air, it was hot. He sprayed a little into his hair, shaking it out as if he were a wet dog. Suddenly, he heard cheering coming from the end of the course. All the cadets were gathered around, patting someone on the back, shouting words of praise and clapping as loud as they could. Erik got up and wandered over, wanting to know what all the fuss was about.

“Hey, kid?” he asked the closest cadet to him, a short guy a couple years younger than him. “Why are they all screaming?”

“Diehl just beat the school’s record time!” the kid said excitedly. “Can you believe it?!”

 

Erik rolled his eyes and pushed the kid as hard as he could. Not only did he want to get him out of his way, but the kid was a Diehl groupie and that was annoying as fuck. The kid hit the ground with a hard “thump” and Erik simply laughed. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Diehl staring at him. People were hugging him and giving him high-fives, yet he was intently staring at Erik.  Erik gave him the finger, and turned away. However, Fritz scrambled out of the crowd, calling Erik’s name as he chased after him.

“Erik! Wait up!” Fritz said as he caught up to him. “I heard your time was the second best, congrats! For a newcomer, that’s huge to accomplish, ya know. ROTC isn’t a piece of cake and you clearly know what you’re doing….” He trailed off. He sensed that Erik wasn’t into compliments, and stopped himself before he crossed a line.

 

“Look, if you want some help improving your time, I’d be happy to train you a bit? We can run the course together a couple of times; it’d make a huge difference.”

 

Erik just gaped at him, astonished by the shit that came out of his mouth. Diehl obviously thought he was above Erik, better than Erik. He wondered how many more stupid things this guy would say before he got his ass kicked. He wished he could stick a muzzle on him, like a dog, so he didn’t have to listen to him speak ever again.

Erik was considering punching him in the face for being such an idiot, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to be kicked out on only his first offical day. Maybe in a couple of weeks or so.

“Don’t need no help,” He shrugged. “And just so you know, everything that comes out of your mouth is stupid and annoys the fuck out of me. I’d rather eat fucking glass shards and rusty nails than have to listen to anything else you have to say. Stop trying to kiss my ass, go back to kissin’ the Dean’s ass okay?” To say Erik did not have a filter was an understatement. That was the thing about **Landas** ; they said exactly what was on their mind, without thinking of the repercussions of it.

 

Fritz was completely baffled. He wasn’t used to anyone hating him here, nor was he used to people talking to him like that. And he wasn’t trying to “kiss Erik’s ass.” He was just trying to be nice. He blinked a couple times, and stuttered a little, trying to think of something to say back, but…. Nothing. He was literally speechless, so he simply turned around and walked away.

Erik gathered up his shit, and stomped off to the locker room, hoping that would shut the kid up for good.

 


	5. And like that, the war begins.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when you take a prank too far?

 

It had been three days since Erik’s confrontation with Fritz after training. To say living together was awkward and uncomfortable for both of them was definitely . . . an understatement. Not a single word had been said to one another in those 72 hours aside the occasional ‘move’ when passing too close by each other.  
The boys would sit in silence each night, Fritz generally doing homework, and Erik usually reading through several of the books he had managed to borrow from the pathetic excuse of a ‘Library’. Sometimes Erik would catch Fritz staring at him, hard and intent, complete and utter hate visible on his face. Erik would stare back until one of them got tired and looked away. Eventually, it would get so uncomfortably quiet that one of the boys would leave, and not come back until later when the other was asleep. Erik had only left once, secretly meeting up with his friends to smoke weed.

Erik had been at the academy for almost a week now, and was finally becoming accustomed to where everything was located and what his daily schedule consisted of. He had a secure routine down, and was becoming more and more content with his life every day.

It was nearing the end of lunch on a Friday. Erik and his group of friends were sitting around their usual spot, drinking beer (that was secretly concealed as soda) and relaxing, Erik fooling around with a Swiss Army Knife. He heard a group of boys approaching, and stashed his “soda” and knife away just in case. Of course, it was Fritz and his massive group of followers. They were walking in the direction of the gym, probably heading there early to change for training. He never understood why they would actually want to sit through their entire algebra class in those bulky uniforms, but then again, he didn’t understand half of the shit Fritz did.

The tallest of the three delinquents shook his head, scoffing as Deihl and his crew walked by. “God, I really hate that kid, ya know?” Everyone nodded in agreement, some voicing their opinions with a short “me too” or “same here”.

“At least you don’t have to bunk with him….” Erik mumbled, “The guy is a nightmare.”

All 5 of his friends’ heads snapped up at once. Erik hadn’t mentioned yet that his roommate was Deihl, so this was news to all of them.  
  
“HE’S your roommate?” the Brother with the Glasses said, laughing incredibly hard. All of Erik’s “friends” had originally introduced themselves, and told him their names, but he didn’t bother to remember them. Instead, he nicknamed them based on their traits, hence “brother with glasses”. He didn’t care enough about them to remember their names. Sure, they were cool dudes and he didn’t mind hanging with them, but Landas never really did the whole “friends” thing. He really only talked to them so he didn’t have to be alone  _all_  the time.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” He shrugged. “He thinks he’s entitled to everything, you know, because everyone here worships him. I hate it.”

“You should fuck up his life.” The delinquent with the nose piercing said, completely nonchalant.

“What do you mean? Erik asked, willing him to elaborate.

“Ya know, play pranks on him, ruin all of his stuff and mess up his reputation. Throw a rumor in there or two. Just fuck up his entire life.”

Erik wondered why he didn’t think about that before. Sure, he was a pretty calm kid back at Essen. And he had never really resorted to petty things such as pranks and stuff, other than to the cousins’ and his brothers. But the nose piercing guy actually had a good idea. It  _would_ be fun to mess up Deihl’s life. Besides, its not lie he was going to do anything illegal … right?

Erik clapped his hands together, rubbing them as if he was a evil scientist or some shit. “So boys, where do we begin?”

 

* * *

 

 

Erik decided to skip the second half of training that night. After eating dinner, he watched as everyone filled out onto the base, and then made his way back to the dorms. They were completely deserted and silent. It made Erik feel at ease. There hadn’t been a moment of complete silence since he moved in, and sometimes, he just liked to listen to himself think. He pulled his room key out of the back pocket of his jeans, and opened the door to his and Fritz’s shared room.

There was 2 hours until training was over, which meant Fritz could come back at any given time after that. Erik had to act quickly. Erik was ready to destroy everything in sight. Erik himself barely had any belongings, so it didn’t concern him that he might ruin some of his own stuff in the process. He began to flip all of the furniture in the room; the desk, chairs, old dial radio. He even debated flipping Fritz’s bed, but decided against it, and left the bed alone. He emptied all the drawers in Fritz’s desk and bedside tables, ripping pages out of every textbook and notebook he found and littering them on the floor. All the little knick knacks on Fritz’s desks and dresser got knocked off and also ended up on the floor. Erik then made his way into Fritz’s dresser drawers, throwing his clothes around the room. He was emptying one of the middle drawers, when he picked up a black wifebeater that he noticed was in his size.

He inspected it for a bit, decided he liked it, and quickly hid it under his pillow. The shirt was his now. He continued trashing the room until he was a bit out of breath, and had to take a drink break. He glanced at the clock, noting that he was making extremely good time, and finished demolishing their dorm. When he was finally satisfied with his work, he got on his hands and knees to look under the bed. He kept a secret stash of army knives, small weapons, drugs and extra cash under there. For some reason, he also had a couple of old spray paint cans he had bought off one of the brothers. Red. Perfect. He grabbed one of them, shook it up a bit, and popped the cap off. He jumped onto Fritz’s bed, and started writing on the wall in front of him. When he ran out of space on Fritz’s wall, he decided to continue it onto his side of the room. He didn’t really care if his walls were messed up too; it gave the room a certain sort of character. When he had finally finished, he put the spray paint back where it belonged, and stood in the very center of the room, admiring his masterpiece. The walls, which now read “Don’t fuck with me again, Deihl” and some other choice words directed at the brunette, were completely filled, not a single space of white showing. Erik grinned, pleased with his work and more than excited to see Fritz’s reaction to his newly decorated room. Erik sat on his bed, still with that shit-eating grin on his face, and waited for Deihl to come back.

 

About an hour later, Erik had gotten bored of sitting in complete silence, and decided to grab his book and read. He was just turning the page when the door slammed open and Fritz walked in. He looked dead tired, huge bags under his eyes, and was extremely sweaty from training. Yet, Erik couldn’t help but stare a bit because he looked fucking sexy. He silently cursed himself for thinking the bane of his existence was hot, and snapped out of his thoughts. Fritz was looking down at his training dirtied uniform, and hadn’t glanced up yet to see the disaster awaiting him. Erik smiled, a real big shit-eating grin, and stared at Fritz until he glanced up and looked Erik right in the eye.   
  
“Why the fuck are you staring at…..” he trailed off, finally noticing the state of his bedroom. His mouth dropped open a bit, and his eyes almost popped right out of his head.  

“Oh-oh my god!” he screamed, furious with his roommate. “What the fuck did you do to all my stuff? Everything’s ruined!” He picked some of his belongings up off the floor, mainly the picture frame of the two girls Erik had stepped on with pride, softly examining them in his hand, with a sad look on his face. He looked at Erik, a mixture of complete rage and despair painted on his face. He shook his head, no words coming out of his mouth, and sadly began picking up his stuff. At this, Erik actually felt kind of bad. The kid looked extremely depressed. His defined features looking 20 years older than they did 5 minutes before. Fritz walked around the room some more, deflated, picking up all the items he figured he could salvage.

He looked up to his wall, and noticed something that slipped his mind; the message on the wall. Suddenly, he was no longer heartbroken about the remains of his stuff. He was positively infuriated. Fritz tried so hard to be decent to his roommate, simply because he  _did_  have to live with him for the next year. But he was over that completely, he was a Deihl after all; they didn’t let people push them around. He turned to look at Erik, rage visible on his face.   
  
“It’s fucking on, Landa.”

Erik smiled that shit-eating grin again, the threat simply proving how much he got under Deihl’s skin. **_OH,_** how he loved that. He laid his head back on his pillow, extremely pleased with his work.

You can take the kid out of the Essen, but you sure as hell can’t take the Essen out of the kid. 

 


	6. Erik's shitty, shitty day...

It had been 2 weeks since the day Erik had destroyed all of Fritz’s stuff. Since then, both boys managed to pull off quite a few pranks and fuck up parts of the other’s lives. They hated each other more than they could even describe by now, and had convinced all of their friends how rotten and evil the other was. They were in full out war-mode. Because of this, living together was absolute shit for both of them. They avoided spending time in their room as much as possible, Erik with his friends and Fritz with his.

There was one thing confusing Erik, however. The room was still in shambles. Some stuff had been picked up off the floor and thrown in the trash, but Fritz had replaced nothing. All his broken furniture was still there, and the walls were still covered in red spray paint. Erik had no idea why he hadn’t purchased new stuff, or better yet, why he hadn’t told the Dean on him. Especially considering Fritz was now limping around campus, sporting a sprained ankle.

A couple of days ago, Erik had snuck out to base before Fritz’s one-on-one training session, and fucked with the course.  Surely, if the Dean found out what Erik had done, he would kick him out immediately and his ass would get sent straight back home to Essen … And his Father. But Fritz hadn’t said a word, and instead told people he sprained it when he accidentally fell down the stairs, confusing Erik even more. Instead of being a snitch, Fritz was fighting back, and playing Erik’s game. Erik didn’t want to admit it, but the kid was actually good too. In the last 14 days, Deihl had managed to give Erik a black eye, quite a few nasty bruises and a dislocated shoulder, all without laying a single finger on him. The kid was secretly an evil genius, and Erik had to give him credit for that. At one point, it kind of turned Erik on.

Seeing someone that attractive act so bad and well, “Erik-like”, was hot. But he managed to push those thoughts out of his head and vowed  _never_  to think them again. He could not get distracted by Deihl’s looks, he needed to win. Landas always fucking won.

 

* * *

 

  
It was 6:35 on a Friday morning. Erik was supposed to be awake more than half an hour ago, but was not awoken by his alarm. He set the old alarm to wake him up at 6am every day (like he was supposed to), unaware Fritz had removed the batteries upon Erik falling asleep, and went to bed.

When he finally awoke at 6:40, his blue eyes fluttering open and adjusting to the tiny stream of light beaming in through the blinds, he looked at the bed beside him to see Deihl was not there. He then looked to the clock on their shared wall and nearly lost it. The one thing in the world that he hated more than class and schoolwork was being late. He despised it for some reason. Considering he didn’t really like being early either, he made it his mission to be exactly on time for everything. He quickly pulled on a pair of sweats and the wife beater he stole from Deihl, brushed his teeth and gelled his hair a little. He was out of the room in no time, racing towards the cafeteria with only 5 minutes until class started. Although he definitely didn’t have time to eat breakfast or anything, it was necessary that he got his morning coffee. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to survive the rest of his fucking day.

 

He rushed into the cafeteria, pushing in front of everyone in line so that he was the first. People gave him dirty looks and shouted some rather choice words at him, but he really did not give a shit. He needed his coffee.

“Hey, Tony!” he shouted to the worker behind the cafeteria counter. He was an older guy, maybe around 30ish, with stark black hair and a thick moustache, which did not flatter him one bit. He worked the breakfast shift every day, and knew Erik’s order off by heart now. “Gimme my usual, and make it fast, I’m in a hurry.”

His coffee was whipped up in no time; two milks and three sugars, just the way he liked it. It tasted better when it was sweet. He quickly grabbed it out of Tony’s hand, practically threw his money at him, and bolted out of the cafeteria doors. Surprisingly, he made it to class on time, with a minute to spare. He took a seat in his regular spot near the back, and took out a notebook he stole off a Fritz upon trashing the place. It was nice. The notebook was littered with everything  _but_ school notes since Eri had obtained it; drawings, dates and times of importance, phone numbers he needed to remember, lists of things he needed to buy and even little stories he’d write during class instead of paying attention. While his teachers looked at him writing away, thinking they had changed him and made him a good student, he was still the same old fucking Landa.

He took a sip of his coffee, savouring the taste. The teacher began to take attendance, and was startled to see that Fritz was not present. When Fritz finally limped in 10 minutes later, slowly making his way to his desk, everyone was shocked. Deihl, being the overachiever he was, was never late.

Ever.

Erik wondered what held him up. Realizing he actually didn’t care, he went back to his drawings, and took a big, long gulp of his coffee.

Three hours later, Erik was doodling away in Biology. He glanced up from his notebook briefly, to make it believable that he was actually paying attention, and noticed Fritz sitting two rows in front of him, scribbling down notes as quickly as possible. Erik resumed his drawing, until a few minutes later, when he suddenly dropped his pencil. He started to feel really odd, his stomach was rumbling in a very bad way. He put a hand on it, rubbing it a little and wondering what had caused this random ass stomach ache to occur. It went away momentarily, and Erik went back to his doodling. But then it came back, even worse than it was previously. Before he knew it, Erik felt like he was literally going to explode right there in his seat. He stood up quickly, clutching his stomach with one hand, and his desk with the other to stabilize himself.

“Is everything okay, Landa?” the teacher asked, calmly.   
  
“I, uh, I just need to go to the bathroom…” he said, quickly hurrying out of the classroom. Behind him, he could hear his classmates laughing, and his teacher yelling something about needing a hall pass. But he didn’t stop, out of complete fear that if he did, he would shit himself.

He finally got to the bathroom, after running as fast as he could. He literally felt like he was dying, and was clutching the toilet and the wall for dear life. After a couple minutes, Erik heard someone enter the bathroom. He remained as still as he could, and made as little noise as possible. He could see legs making their way towards his stall, the left foot slowly dragging behind the right with a little limp. Suddenly, his door was slammed open with a smug kick, and there stood Deihl, staring at the clammy and toilet bound Erik in the stall, with a horrible grin on his face.

“How’s it hanging in there?” he smirked at him, laughing a little bit while leaning against the stall’s doorframe. “I’m pissed you made it on time… I was hoping you’d shit your pants a little.”

Erik stared at him with wide eyes, realizing he set him up. He was so furious that he didn’t even care that Fritz was staring at him while his pants were down. “Did you slip me a fucking laxative?” he nearly screamed.

Fritz grinned. “Sure did, roomie! Well, technically I didn’t. I paid Tony 50 bucks to put it in your coffee this morning.” He shrugged.

“You stupid fuck…” Erik growled, literally about to stand up and jump Fritz.

“Whoa, down boy! You may not want to stand up for the next little while or so, if you know what I mean.” He cackled loudly, as Erik sunk back into the toilet as quickly as he went to stand, realizing the truth to Fritz’s words. He was gonna be stuck there for quite a bit of time.  
  
“Have fun shitting your brains out!” Fritz smirked, about to exit the bathroom, before turning back towards Erik hesitantly. “Hey… are you wearing my shirt? I’ve been looking everywhere for that.” Before Erik could respond, he dismissed him with a wave, and left the room. He was too overjoyed about the circumstance Erik was in to even care if he had stole his shirt. He made his way back to class, practically skipping, awaiting for Erik’s return (which probably wouldn’t be for a while). He sat through the rest of the class with a big, shit-eating grin on his face.

It felt good to win.

 


	7. Sexual Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens, when tripped and in a pinned state, Erik has some wayward thoughts?

Erik stumbled his way to the back wall where he usually hung out with his friends between or after classes, rubbing his rump every once in a while to remove the phantom sensation of a toilet seat. He was exhausted as he sat down on the pavement beside the brother who always wears capri pants, sliding down the wall. His shoulders slumped as he rested his head against the wall, closing his eyes and sighing loudly. It felt so good just to be able to relax for a little bit. He had a  _very_  rough morning. After finally getting out of the bathroom, he decided to skip Spanish class to go and have a little chat with Tony. He roughed him up a bit, scared him out of telling the dean, and told him not to fucking mess with him again.

 

When Erik opened his eyes a few minutes later, all 5 of his friends were staring at him. “What the fuck happened to you?” the short kid with an arm tattoo asked.

Erik shook his head, too pissed and tired to even share the story. Instead he decided to give the short version of his morning, and get straight to the point. “Deihl slipped me a fucking laxative…” he trailed off, slightly embarrassed to admit this to his friends, who basically worshiped him. Their mouths dropped open wide, a few of them started to laugh quietly while the others were so shocked they couldn’t say a word.

“He made you shit your pants?” the brother with glasses questioned, trying his best to conceal his laughter.

Erik glared at him in response. “No, you fucking idiot, I did not shit my pants….. I almost shit my pants.” All five of the guys broke out in complete laughter, some of them literally rolling on the ground. Erik sat there, an extremely hard look on his face, hoping they’d all stop laughing soon. He knew this would be an ongoing joke for the rest of his time at school.

 

_Great._

 

While the boys continued to laugh, crack jokes, and think up new nicknames associated with “the incident” to call Erik, he dedicated his time to brainstorming ideas on how to get Deihl back. He couldn’t let him win. Erik needed to come up with an idea so clever that Deihl would be completely taken aback, so embarrassing that the redhead would not want to look his classmates in the eye. It had to be his best prank yet. Considering his previous pranks were already damn good, this was going to be very tough to come up with, but Erik could do it. If only he dedicated this much hard work into school, he’d be a A+ student.

He heard the bell ring, signaling lunch was over and algebra was to begin in 10 minutes time. He picked up his notebook, shoved it in his backpack, and walked off to class. Although he  _really_ didn’t want to see Deihl, nor have to sit through a whole class with him in the seat next to his, he had to go to this class. If not, Deihl would think he didn’t show up because of him; because he was embarrassed and weak. Erik was neither of those things, so he had to suck it up and attend this bullshit class. On the bright side however, he’d have an hour to come up with prank ideas before training, which was cool. He arrived at class, and walked to his seat with arrogance (he was mostly faking how arrogant he was but no one knew that). He didn’t notice anyone looking at him funny, so he figured no one had heard about the incident yet, which calmed him down a little. Erik sat down in his chair, pulled out his notebook, and began to jot down ideas for his best prank yet.  


 

It was training time once again, and today the cadets were running the obstacle course yet again. The TI had instructed that to make things interesting and challenging, each cadet would be paired with another for their run of the course. The two cadets were to run the course together, and basically race one another to the finish. Whoever came first, got to spot the loser during weight training, and got to take a day off from actually doing the training themselves. The TI debated whether he should pick names out of a hat, but decided that could end up being unfair. Imagine a short, wimpy cadet being paired up with Erik. Hilarious. So instead, each cadet was to be put against someone in their own league. Unfortunately for Erik, this meant Deihl, as they were the top two highest scorers on the course. When notified of their partners, both Fritz and Erik were excited rather than annoyed, as this gave them each the chance to compete against, and hopefully beat, one another.

 

Erik noticed Fritz stretching off to the side of the base camp, warming up for their battle. Erik didn’t need to warm up, warming up was for pussies. Erik was confident that he could beat Deihl regardless. When the boys names were called, signaling it was their turn to run the course, they both sprinted to the beginning point, eager to start.  When the whistle blew, both boys were off, trying their hardest to lead rather than fall behind.

 

For a while, things went smoothly. The rope course was quite neck in neck, both boys able to climb them with ease. Erik fell behind a bit in the mud run, but was able to catch up to Deihl during the tire run. Finally, the two boys reached the last obstacle, which consisted of simple hurdles to jump over. They both leaped over the first hurdle at the exact same time, and jumped the second one simultaneously as well. This worried Erik; with only 8 hurdles left, either boy had the chance to win. Noticing Fritz was just a tad bit behind him, Erik stuck out his leg without even thinking, tripping Fritz and sending him slamming into his back. Unfortunately, Erik fell with him, landing on the ground completely intertwined with Fritz, arms and legs flailing everywhere. Fritz being beneath Erik at this point, quickly turned the boys over, straddling Erik and pinning his arms down to keep him from swatting at him. He started into Erik’s eyes, about to let it out on him and tell him off for tripping him, but no words came out of his mouth. Instead, the two boys simply stared right into each other’s eyes, not looking away.

 

**You could not cut the sexual tension with a fucking knife.**

Erik looked away first, not wanting Fritz to catch on to what Erik was thinking. Fritz slowly released his grip on Erik’s wrists, and moved off of him onto the grass beside him. Both boys were so puzzled and confused by what just happened that they forgot they were in the middle of running the course. So many thoughts were running through Erik’s head at this point, mostly about how hot Deihl was and how green his eyes were.

 

Yeah, Erik hated Fritz more than he ever hated anyone, but the guy was smoking hot regardless.

 

The TI’s voice brought both boys back to reality, as he screamed at them to continue. Fritz got up quickly, and Erik followed suit, both boys back on the track and hopping the last few hurdles. However, Erik wasn’t so motivated to win anymore, and slowed his pace down a little to allow Fritz to jump the last one first, winning the race. All the cadets raced towards Deihl, slapping him on the back congratulating him for winning. Fritz smiled and allowed all of them to fawn over him, as per usual.

Erik wiped the sweat off of his face, took a huge gulp of water, and walked to the bleachers to take a rest before he had to start weight training. He thought about how Deihl was going to be his spotter, watching over him while he lifted weights and assisting him when needed. He snapped out of his thoughts instantly, a bit disturbed that he was a little turned on by what just happened, and what was about to happen. He shook his head and silently cursed at himself for thinking like that. He got up and made his way over to the gym, passing Deihl without looking at him or saying a word.

 

Once at the gym, he took a seat at a bench, claiming it as his own. Erik could bench press quite a large amount for such a petite guy, and was ready to show Deihl how strong he was. Before he knew it, Deihl walked over to Erik, a water bottle in his hand and his uniform open ever so slightly, so a bit of his chest was peeking out. Erik couldn’t help but notice it, and stare a little. He scolded himself, promising to stop thinking about Deihl for the rest of the day, unless it was something rude and awful. He somehow knew that he would end up breaking that promise.

 

_**God, today was a fucked up day. . .** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reward for Andy for doing so well on her Uni tests <3 Loves the Andy


	8. Discoveries

Erik awoke with a start, his pillow and bed covered in sweat. His heart was beating faster than it should have been, and his hands were clutching his sheets with so much strength that they were barely still clinging to his mattress. After his “competition” with Fritz a week ago, Erik had been thinking about him a lot.

Unfortunately for Erik, his constant thoughts about Deihl transitioned into dreams about him; dreams that occurred every single fucking night.

Although Erik would hate to admit it, they were super hot; sometimes causing him to wake up with a hard on, or even worse, with wet bed sheets. After dealing with whatever situation he was faced with that night, he would return back to bed. For the first few nights, he was very frustrated as to why he kept dreaming about Deihl. He’d lie there completely still with his eyes shut, trying to fall asleep, but sleep would not overcome him. Eventually, he came to realize that falling asleep after a sex dream was very hard for him. So for the past few nights instead, Erik would lay there, eyes open, until the sun rose. Sometimes he would think about how real his dreams felt, and sometimes he would simply replay them in his head. He was beginning to think he was starting to enjoy the dreams, and would even go as far as saying he looked forward to them, and that scared the hell out of him. To say it was driving him insane was definitely an understatement. The next mornings at school, he was practically a zombie. The lack of sleep probably had something to do with that as well.

The following morning, Erik had decided to skip his first two classes. He was way too fucking tired to be able to concentrate, and knew if he even tried he would just fall asleep on his desk. Instead, he made his way over to his usual spot by the brick wall, and pulled out a cigarette from the front pocket of his jeans. He lit it, placed it between his lips, and exhaled a large puff of smoke. Over the next few minutes, his friends all began to join him one by one. None of them spoke to each other, instead nodding their silent hellos and each pulling out a cigarette of their own. Erik was grateful for the silence; his head was pounding and even the smallest noise would bother him. The silence also gave room for him to think about his prank plans for Deihl. Although it had been a week, he still didn’t know what he could do to top him. He was beginning to get frustrated and extremely anxious. He wondered if Deihl had thought he had gone soft and given up after the shitting incident. Let alone the tension after being pinned.

He definitely did not, he just needed time.

Noticing his cigarette was almost out, he threw it to the ground, stepping on it to put it out. “So, Erik…” said the kid with glasses, who was still working on his own cigarette. “I’m making a trip into town this weekend to pick up some weed and shit. All of us are out, and god knows how hard it is to survive a day around here without some. You need any?”  
  
“Yeah, of course.” Erik said, without hesitation. He could always use some weed. “A few grams at least.”   
  
“Cool, just come to my dorm tonight and gimme the money. I’ll have your shit for you by Saturday night at the latest.” He said, finishing off his bud and instantly lighting another one.

 

 

Erik nodded in agreement and turned to walk away. The humidity and the sun constantly beating down on him was making his headache way worse, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He already skipped his first two classes, what was three more. As he made his way back to his dorm room, he reached his hands into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out his very old and tattered wallet. He had the thing since he was about 11, and it was about to completely fall apart. It was a surprise that it actually was still able to hold cash, let alone change. He opened it up, noticing how extremely empty it looked. He never had any of the fancy things of cards, and had never put even a cent into his bank account with Heinz breathing down his neck 24/7, so the card slots were always empty. However, the slot where bills went, and the pocket where change was kept almost always had something in them; the benefits of being a Landa in Chicago. But today, as he looked through his wallet, all he found was a single 20 dollar bill. He cursed at himself and threw the wallet to the ground in anger, wondering how in the world he could spend almost all his money in such a short amount of time. He was fucked; there was no way to earn money here and it’s not like he had anyone back at home who would be willing to send him any. To get money from Oma and Opa, it would alert Heinz one way or another…

He had finally approached his dorm, opening and then slamming the door shut with a loud bang. He marched his way over to a garbage can on Fritz’s side of the room, and kicked it over out of frustration.

The contents of it spilled all over the floor, littering their bedroom with even  _more_  crap.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Erik noticed a couple of quarters resting in the pile of garbage. Shit, Deihl was so fucking rich he even threw money away. Erik picked them up and pocketed them. Although it was only small change, it was still money. When you were as broke as Erik, a spare quarter was like a gift from god. As Erik straightened himself up, a realization came across him. Maybe Deihl had some spare cash hiding somewhere in his room. Better yet, he had shit that Erik could steal and pawn for some cash. A smile spread across his face, and he instantaneously began tearing through all of Deihl’s belongings. This was somewhat difficult however, considering Fritz  _still_ hadn’t tidied his side of the room up after Erik had destroyed it. He looked through all the piles of crap littering the floor, moved all the remaining pieces of furniture to look behind them and even searched through the pockets of Deihl’s pants that littered the floor. So far he’d found about 13 dollars in change and about 50 bucks worth of shit to pawn.

Finally, he made his way over to the bed (practically the only thing that remained untouched during Erik’s moment of destruction) and stripped it of the sheets. He removed Fritz’s pillow, and shook it out, finding absolutely nothing. He tossed it on the floor, getting on his hands and knees to search under the bed. There, he found a 5 dollar bill, which he pocketed without hesitation, and a swiss army knife that he knew he could get some cash for. He stood up straight, fixing his shirt quickly, and turned in the direction of his side of the room. Suddenly, he remembered he forgot to check under the mattress, and quickly shoved an arm under it to see what he could find. His hand instantly grabbed a hold of something. He pulled it out to discover it was just a pile of magazines, the top one being an army magazine. Typical.

Thinking he heard a noise outside the door, Erik startled and dropped the pile of magazines on the ground. He swore to himself, and bent down to pick them up. He gathered them into a pile, not at all caring about restoring them to how he originally found them, and went to shove them under the bed again. However, something caught Erik’s eye that he did not expect at all. Peeking out from underneath 3 or 4 army magazines was the corner of a porno. Erik laughed to himself, tossing the rest of the magazines on the bed, and taking a seat beside the pile, porno magazine still in hand.

Who would have thought; Fritz, the great pride of the school had porno maga-

… Wait …

Taking a look at the cover more carefully, Erik’s laughter began to subside and he began to find it hard to breathe properly. The magazine wasn’t just any plain porn magazine; it was a gay porn magazine. Normally, he’d be happy to have found a gay porno; he’d claim it as his own and add it to his collection. But the fact that it was Deihl’s…

Erik dropped it onto the pile in an instant, and began ruffling through the rest of Fritz’s magazines, finding loads more gay porn. He grabbed a few of them, and flipped through them to confirm that he wasn’t going crazy. Deihl had gay porn; porn with men in it, not girls. Deihl was attracted to men…

_Oh …_

_God…_

**_Deihl was gay._ **

 

At that very instant, the door to their shared dorm swung open and in walked Fritz. He looked over at Erik sitting on his bed with confusion, locking eyes with him. His gaze slowly travelled down from his eyes to his hands, where he noticed what the boy was holding. All the color drained from his face, and he grabbed the door frame in an attempt to steady himself, as if he was going to fall over or pass out. Erik dropped the magazines, shock evidently on his face, and shoved them back under the mattress where he found them. He looked back up at Fritz, stood in the exact same position with the exact same look on his face. He was in complete shock; both boys were.

Fritz Deihl was gay, and although Erik was surprised, he was more in shock for a different reason.

He was shocked because he was actually excited about this news, and this disturbed him.

Because he did not need to pull anymore pranks for revenge on Fritz. He had the Dean’s pride and glory student in the palm of his hand with the BEST guilt tripping and manipulating information he could have possibly dreamed of.

Fritz so much as looked like he was up to something, and Erik was going to spread this faster than the School could handle.

If the Dean hated Erik because of what his father had spread on, how would he react to his precious little student being in the same rainbow boat as Erik?

**Author's Note:**

> while, I have never been to boarding school nor have I been apart of the military, so everything about this fic is completely new to me, I have researched SO MUCH about everything included in this fic to help make it more accurate and hope that it makes sense and is realistic enough.
> 
> If you do have any input to give me i would appreciate it greatly.


End file.
